1. Field of Invention
This invention relates generally to animal feeding devices, particularly to a device for treating caged animals in a more humane manner by enriching their feeding procedure.
2. Description of Prior Art
Researchers commonly keep many non-human animals (hereafter "animals") in cages and use them for various experiments. When such animals are used as surrogates for humans in experiments, they are called "animal models". Animal rights organizations are working to eliminate the use of animal models since animals not only suffer from such experiments, but suffer from merely keeping them caged. Some of these organizations also believe that the use of animal models is scientifically fallacious because animals (a) do not have the same problems and lifestyles as humans, (b) react differently to various stimuli, methodologies, and tests, and (c) provide test results which cannot be validly extrapolated to humans. However thus far these organizations have not yet been able to raise the consciousness of the general public about this practice sufficiently to elicit a broadly based outcry. Also, ecology organizations are concerned about protecting animal rights and stopping the waste of scarce health care funds. In the meantime, laboratory animals continue to be subjected to physical and psychological suffering.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,251,342 to Kay (1966) shows an animal feed cage with a door having a bottle with a feeding tube projecting from the bottle's bottom into the cage. A container also is mounted on the door below the bottle. The container has a fill trough on its outside wall and an opening facing into the cage (FIG. 4) so that the caged animal can reach into the container and get the food. The purpose of Kay's device is to enable a keeper to feed caged animals more easily and to prevent them from disrupting the feeding devices attached to their cage. Although this device feeds solids and liquids to the animals while they are kept in Kay's cage, they are subject to boredom since the cage is small and confining and there is basically nothing for them to do but to drink and eat in a very simple manner.
Schroer, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,645,234 (1972), shows a feeder similar to the bottle portion of Kay's feeder. Schroer's feeding tube has a bottom which extends into the cage and a top which has a pointed end for piercing cans. Again, the caged animals are subject to boredom since the cage is small and confining and the only activity for them is to drink and eat in a simple manner.
To alleviate the boredom and other inhumane aspects of these and other conventional cage and feeder arrangements, Dr. Jane Goodall, a well-known primate researcher, has developed a device, termed a "grape board", for feeding primates. The device comprises a box with J-shaped tubes and is described in "Comfortable Quarters for Laboratory Animals", published. by Animal Welfare Institute, Washington, D.C., 1979. A keeper supplies food (e.g., grapes or any other suitable comestible) at the top of the long arm of the J-shaped tube and the animal reaches into the top of the short arm to retrieve the food. The purpose of this device is to force the caged primate to exert some effort to retrieve the food from the bottom of the "J" and thereby relieve some boredom. While somewhat effective, this device provides relatively little challenge and thus only partially satisfies the animal's psychological needs.